Well, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia is almost upon us tomorrow morning at 3am in the morning so let's have a look at the groups, teams & the star players:
Group A
Russia (Fedor Smolov)
Saudi Arabia (Salman Al Faraj)
Egypt (Mohamed Salah)
Uruguay (Luis Suarez)
Group B
Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo)
Spain (David de Gea)
Morocco (Mehdi Benatia)
IR Iran (Sardar Azmoun)
Group C
France (Antoine Griezmann)
Australia (Mooy & Ryan)
Peru (Jefferson Farfan)
Denmark (Christian Eriksen)
Group D
Argentina (Lionel Messi)
Iceland (Gylfi Sigurdsson)
Croatia (Luka Modric)
Nigeria (Victor Moses)
Group E
Brazil (Neymar)
Switzerland (Yann Sommer)
Costa Rica (Keylor Navas)
Serbia (Nemanja Matic)
Group F
Germany (Manuel Neuer)
Mexico (Corona, Guardado, Hernandez, Lozano & Vela)
Sweden (Emil Forsberg)
Korea Republic (Son Heung-min)
Group G
Belgium (De Bruyne & Hazard)
Panama (Godoy & Torres)
Tunisia (Wahbi Khazri)
England (Harry Kane)
Group H
Poland (Robert Lewandowski)
Senegal (Koulibaly & Mane)
Colombia (James Rodriguez)
Japan (Shinji Kagawa)
And who is going to win the tournament? We'll see (Well mine would be Germany at this stage because they won the last soccer World Cup).
Well, look, the history of the past FIFA World Cup tournaments began in 1930 when hosts Uruguay won the inaugural tournament followed by Italy who won their 1st 2 titles in 1934 (As hosts) & 1938 pre-World War II.
And after the war, the tournament resumed in 1950 when 1930 champions Uruguay stunned hosts Brazil 2 - 1 to become champions again then in 1954 when West Germany beat Olympic champions in Helsinki 1952, Hungary in the final before in 1958 when Brazil 1st became champions of the world after their win against hosts Sweden in a roller coaster final before the Brazilians successfully complete their successful defence of the FIFA World Cup in 1962 when they defeated Czechoslovakia in the final followed by England (Who were hosts of that tournament) in 1966 in which they beat West Germany in the final with the only hat-trick of the World Cup final scored by legendary English striker Geoff Hurst before Brazil regained the title in which they dominated against Italy in the final way back in 1970, becoming the 1st team to win 3 FIFA World Cups followed by West Germany who went all the way forward to win the competition in 1974 after seeing off the Netherlands in the final then 4 years later in 1978, hosts Argentina won the competition for the 1st time after their victory in the final against the Netherlands before Italy ended a 44 year drought to dismantle West Germany in the final to win their 3rd World Cup in 1982 then a Jorge Burruchaga goal set up by Diego Maradona in the final in 1986 against West Germany gifted Argentina their 2nd World Cup title 8 years after winning their 1st World Cup before Argentina were in the final yet again in 1990, losing to West Germany before Brazil edged Italy out in the final on penalties (Including that penalty shootout miss by Italian player Roberto Baggio gifting the Brazilians a victory on penalties in the World Cup final) to win their 4th FIFA World Cup title in 1994 then in 1998, hosts France had won the tournament, thrashing defending champions Brazil 3 - 0 (Including both headers scored by Zinedine Zidane before Emmanuel Petit finished it off in style with a goal at the death) in the final before Brazil regained the title as well as claiming their 5th title, defeating Germany in the final (Including both goals scored by the Brazilian Ronaldo) way back in 2002 then in 2006, Italy won the title on penalties against France in the final but the match will always be remembered when French skipper Zinedine Zidane got sent off for a headbutt to the chest on Italian defender Marco Materazzi before in 2010 it was Spain's joy as they won their 1st FIFA World Cup title with a match winning goal at extra time scored by Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta against the 10 man Netherlands in the final & finally in 2014, Germany won the World Cup for the 4th time (They managed to end their 24 year drought by becoming champions of the world) after successfully beating Argentina in the final with a match winning goal at extra time that won them the World Cup scored by German substitute Mario Goetze (Just like Andres Iniesta did against Holland in the final in 2010).
So that is my 206th blog of the year 2018 (MMXVIII) & my 26th of this year.
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